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Now you've verbally struck my Derry air over this elsewhere but Gymnopedie no1 is towards the end of Classics To Moderns 3 and because I couldn't play it when I was with Biddy O'Reilly years ago, she lay into me like a giant schnauzer which made me cry. It was my inability to play that Satie piece that prompted her to call me the awkwardest person I've ever had the misfortune to teach which actually turned me away and estranged my emotions from the joys of the piano. I've told Mabel all this but I've also said as soon as I reach the piece (the pieces are taking me longer to learn now) it would be a cause to celebrate a huge victory over the rogue teacher Fanny Fosdyke. Just because she is a gifted musician (which there is no denying) she thinks she has a God-given right to look down on and condemn people who can't play as good as her. Yet she, like everyone else was a learner once. Mabel has taught her everything she knows....except manners and humility.

I was listening to 'I went to school in Cheltenham' by Tsai Chin yesterday, which I thought was really funny and satirical when I first heard it (on Desmond Carrington's old show on Radio 2 about 30 years ago). I think I'll have that on the brain today.

I only have one Gymnopedie at the moment, and 15 or so more pieces between where I am now and the piece itself. It's just below grade 4 in terms of standards but it would be a major milestone for me if I can conquer it. Having said that, what A....., erm Mabel does is that she skips pieces when she picks my homework so I could get it sooner than I think!

Had 'Yes Sir I Can Boogie' by Baccara yesterday, but was too knackered to post after I'd finished putting plasterboard up, done piano practice and watched 'Cucumber'. Whatever happened to Baccara? They were Spanish but they represented Luxembourg in Eurovision one year.

I mentioned the Empire Road song by Matumbi, which I had on one of these K-Tel compilations from Woolworths, the Baccara song was on the same compilation I think.

1977, the year Elvis pegged it (or not, if you're a conspiracy theorist. Or american. But definitely not if you're an american conspiracy theorist). It seemed to be on the radio in a cycle with 'Way On Down' the rest of the summer.

It was Elvis' first ever posthumous number one. He died on my wife's birthday, 16th August - and if the Royle Family are to be believed, he died on the lavatory. Yes, he had all those no1's - yet it was a no2 that killed him.....

For a couple of hours, the music from 'Last Tango In Paris' as it was on the radio. I once heard a saxaphone and very heavy Hamnmond organ version of the main theme by Max Greger Senior and Junior about 25 or so years ago and I've not been able to find it anywhere on YT.

Feels Like I'm In Love by Kelly Marie, which was written by Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry fame. Kelly Marie is a popular girls name now but not so much in 1979 when that song got to no1. I bet her real name was something like Tracey Pratley or something.

You did try the mute icon at the bottom left of the YT screen?? Sometimes on my machine it mutes by default even with my computer sound module.

The Beckley TV transmitter, which can be seen from parts of the M40 used to radiate ATV from Birmingham. It was one of the largest ITV regions in the country. Surprisedly enough I noticed all TV antennas in Marlow are directed towards Crystal Palace in south London, for Thames/LWT that was. (I would have thought Hannington, for Meridian/South Today would be the correct region?)

In the olden days of HTV, Welsh houses used to spend a fortune on high gain television reception equipment to receive West of England regional programmes rather than Welsh ones, even from quite a way up the valleys. I guess it's because of the ambivolence in that part of Wales towards Welsh language and culture (though this is changing). It's the same in the North. I stayed in a guest house in Llandudno, expected S4C on the fourth button and got Channel 4. S4C was nowhere and the BBC regional news gave me Gordon Burns (ex-Krypton) rather than Sara Edwards. The next day I noticed nearly all antennas were high gain and pointing into Liverpool Bay rather than at the local transmitter or at Llanddona on Anglesey.But I noticed this was the case all along the North Wales coast. In Bangor, only a few homes have metal jungles on their roofs aimed at Lancashire. Don't expect any commentary on Welsh football or rugger from BBC North West!

You GENIUS child!!!!! I am sooooooooooooo grateful...and can now listen to youtube stuff. Hurrah!
We get better reception from Crystal Palace on the whole, although Rank Xerox built a hulking great office block which blocked tv signals for a lot of homes that end of town.

Of course Welsh households who choose to watch West or North West (England) regional output can watch Welsh programmes as they are available. Not so in parts of Radnorshire where even local transmitters on Welsh soil radiate programmes from Midlands transmitters. The Garth Hill transmitter serving Knighton, Bleddfa, Beguildy and neighbouring villages, along with the New Radnor mast - serving an area along the A44 between Llandrindod Wells (which has Welsh TV) and the English border also radiates the incorrect UK country's regional output. England is full of transmitters carrying the wrong region (north Gloucestershire (west Midlands instead of West) and north Notts/Derbyshire (Yorkshire instead of east Midlands)) but when the wrong UK countrys' programmes - and ONLY the wrong UK countrys' programmes can be received, then OFCOM should investigate.

The hilly terrain in Powys prevents households using high gain antennas to pull signals in from 'Welsh' transmitters such as Llandrindod Wells.

It's on R2 a lot. Well, not a lot, but Wogan likes it and so does Ken the Bruce.
I'm being haunted by 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' today. It came on after a Russian lesson - one of the words must have sounded like bikini or something.

I didn't think Wogan (and his ego) were still on Radio 2, but yes, Bikini it is. Brian Hyland did it (he was a child star) firstly but Bomb Alurina (aka Timmy Mallett) covered it as a party anthem in the 80s with assistance from not at all good but incredibly popular Stock Aitken and Waterman.

See, I am the Mike Read of the Left....and I don't need Wikipedia or Google to help me! Though I might call upon the services of Youtube for a spot of W.O.L.D later.

'Will You' by Hazel O'Connor. I loved it when it first came out (though I daren't tell anybody at school for fear of homophobic abuse) and even now I love it more. It was doing the rounds when we went to Wales with the school and there were these seven or so of us staying in this delapidated old attic (not a million miles from the sort of thing I'm insulating at the moment) with a mop bucket in the corner for obvious reasons. This was the very first time I heard Cymraeg.

I used to like Benny Green's show, he was so deadpan and he knew everything about what he was talking about, he wasn't reading it from a script. He was on Derek Jameson's show one morning and he wittily and with great honour took Jameson apart.

That would be a weekly dose of 'Della and the Dealer' by Hoyt Axton (dog/Jake, cat/Kalamazoo) would it? along with New York New York by Gerard Kenny and almost everything Randy Edelman has ever recorded along with a soupcon of WOLD and 'Harry' by Catherine Howe from Halifax??? Talk about a listenership that's set in their ways, I am suprised the BBC haven't offered Jimmy Young a substantial sum of money to come out of retirement and follow him, or got Alistair McGowan on to authentically impersonate 'JY'.

Fanny Fossie has R2 on in her car, and one of her Farcebook 'likes' is The Chris Evans Breakfast Show. Glad I listen to R3 - which I know Mabel does in her green runabout.

I think if you want to be on either radio or television in the mornings, you have to be annoying. The people who want to be gently eased into their day count for absolutely nought, or should I say their opinions do. Radio 3 would be expected to be less manic, however even its morning offering is becoming infected with 15 minute news summaries and newspaper reviews (after Chopin played by Argerich, the Daily Star tells us that someone in the Big Brother house has blown their nose). The BBC need to realise in their capacity as a licence fee funded broadcaster that they are catering to people who may not want the same old same old that other broadcasters, commercial or otherwise, are spoonfeeding us!

and I've still got W.O.L.D on my mind, singing snatches from it at regular intervals....

One tune on the brain leads to another one...or two. A line from W.O.L.D is 'so I drifted on down to Tulsa Oklahoma just to do me a late night talkshow'. What is Tulsa's most famous export? Hanson, of course. And what was their biggest hit?? Well that's what's been my mantra today....well that and I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole

A Soldier's Song, the national anthem of Ireland. Think it's because Ireland were on the telly yesterday in the Six Nations, and I had a look round the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Google Street View, followed by a stroll down the prom in Bray, Co.Wicklow.

All this stuff on the news about Jihadi John has gotten me thinking about JILTED John. You remember the one, oh, she is cruel and heartless to pack me for Gordon, just because he's better looking than me, just because he's cool and trendy. But I know he's a moron. Gordon is a moron, Gordon is a moron, Gordon is a moron.

Gill the Piano wrote:...a song resurrected when Gordon Brown became PM. Along with 'Gordon Brown' by the Stranglers.

Yes, the mnemonic I always use for the lines and spaces on the bass clef: Gordon Brown Did F*** All - And Couldn't Even Govern!!! Actually, the character whom Jilted John became, low-flying pop star John Shuttleworth also mentions 'Gordon Is A Moron' in the Brown context in his Nick Clegg song (it may not be called that but Clegg represents a part of Sheffield in Parliament which is where John Shuttleworth supposedly hails from).

Earlier on I couldn't stop singing (in the style of the original hit) Club Country by The Associates - He's departed now but I used to think that bloke had a real fresh and powerful voice (wonder if he's originally done opera?)

'Hoedown' from the Rodeo suite by Aaron Copland - as I bought a Naxos of his three famous works (Rodeo, Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring) plus 'Fanfare' from a charity shop, got it home and it doesn't play, meaning I had to ditch it. You have to wonder why people give stuff to charity shops - but it is very rare I get a duff CD anyway. I bought another splendid Naxos of some Baroque guitar music by Bach which was perfect but was ruined by my wife who had it in the car and didn't put it back in its case. So that's two CDs I've had to chuck in seven days.

The Emerson Lake and Palmer version of Hoedown was the first time I heard the tune but it goes into 'Orange Blossom Special' and another familiar tune but one that I cannot name:

'Hoedown' from the Rodeo suite by Aaron Copland - as I bought a Naxos of his three famous works (Rodeo, Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring) plus 'Fanfare' from a charity shop, got it home and it doesn't play, meaning I had to ditch it. You have to wonder why people give stuff to charity shops - but it is very rare I get a duff CD anyway. I bought another splendid Naxos of some Baroque guitar music by Bach which was perfect but was ruined by my wife who had it in the car and didn't put it back in its case. So that's two CDs I've had to chuck in seven days.

The Emerson Lake and Palmer version of Hoedown was the first time I heard the tune but it goes into 'Orange Blossom Special' and another familiar tune but one that I cannot name:

'Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven, to thy Size 11's thy tribute bring'. Biddy Bagshawe played that one Sunday in the service, though in her case, the fourth line of verse 2 should have the chiding and the blessing the other way round.